Master of Three Worlds references the storytelling format The Hero's Journey, also known as the ‘Master of Two Worlds', in which a protagonist is exposed to unexpected hardship and trial and returns to their initial setting having completed a transformative journey, now a master of both the domestic and initially unfamiliar worlds.

The 'Three Worlds’ in this case relate to artists coming to terms with their initial physical location after development of relationships with new countries and cultures, wrestling with conceptualising work following the influence this may have, and the way in which practice expands and changes over time.

Featuring the multidisciplinary works of seven artists, Transmute explores the connections that inform, sculpt or reshape us, from the deeply personal to the fleeting. From textiles to videography, Transmute is an immersive exhibition that interrogates the realm of who we are within the context of our relationships.

‘The original title for this exhibition was Interplanetary Craft but I thought it referenced the moon and space too literally. However I did like the connection to The Klaatu song made famous by The Carpenters, Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft (I also enjoyed the play on the word ‘craft'). The song’s title was a telepathic chant written for World Contact Day in 1967. At a predetermined date and time, participants would attempt to collectively send out a telepathic message to visitors from outer space. The message began with the words, ‘Calling occupants of interplanetary craft.’ The song never made the Top 20 in America, but hit number 1 in Ireland in 1977. I was also thinking about the word 'craft', perhaps the title of the show could have been Visions of Craft or Crafted Visions. I often experiment with visions that pop into my head. These visions can be the beginning of a work or a final idea that I work towards completing. I suppose you could also use the word 'intuition’ instead of 'vision', although Intuitive Craft or Intuitively Crafted as a title doesn’t work, I think? I’m also interested in the art/craft divide (with this show I examine stain glass techniques). However the titles Visions of Craft or Crafted Visions or Intuitive Craft or Intuitively Crafted are terrible. So finally I settled on Accidental Procedures as this seemed to sum up my making process quite nicely.’
Vicky Browne, June 2017

Vicky Browne is an installation artist based in the Blue Mountains, NSW. Browne often manipulates the familiar using traditional craft methods (such as knitting or weaving), and she regularly employs found or produced sound. Browne completed a Master of Visual Art at Sydney College of the Arts in 2010 and her work has been exhibited at Artspace, Sydney; Artspace, Auckland, New Zealand; and Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand. Institutional group exhibitions include Living in the Ruins of the Twentieth Century, UTS Gallery, Sydney; Sound Full: Sound in Contemporary Australian and New Zealand Art, City Gallery Wellington, New Zealand; WONDER, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Gymea; and It is what it is, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor. Vicky Browne also maintains a collaborative practice with musician Darren Seltmann. Together they have exhibited at MONA FOMA, Hobart, completed a residency at Artspace Sydney 2014, and exhibited the work Black Mountain at the Blue Mountain Cultural Centre. Browne has also collaborated with Peter Blamey on the project The Sun Tone Harvester, for The Garden Space, Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia (2016).

Browne was announced the winner of the 2013 Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Artists’ Travel Scholarship Prize and completed a residency at the 18th Street Art Centre in Santa Monica in 2014. She is a finalist in this year’s National Self-Portrait Prize, an invitation-only acquisitive prize held by the The University of Queensland. Browne’s works are held in the public collections of Artbank and the Gold Coast City Art Gallery.

'I used to be a curator in a big museum and like a lapsed Catholic I carry the guilt inside me forever. It has led to a lot of my ceramic work being about the art world itself which is a really boring topic at the best of times.

I’m intrigued by the way that online forums have become the home of art criticism. Pithy comments have replaced analysis as the mainstream print media shrinks. I mine the online environment for subject matter fixing it in perpetuity. Pots have the potential to last for millennia and this really appeals to my ego.

Like many others in the art world I am an avid reader of the online comments of the Brisbane artist Scott Redford. I think he has created a large corpus of writing which is a counternarrative to the bright and shiny rhetoric that emerges out of most major institutions. I have made a large pot that celebrates this.

I appreciate that although I do not agree with everything he says I really admire that he is game enough, and smart enough, to say it.

There is another pot here about performance art. As always I’m trying to leave a record of the ephemeral, a bulwark against time.'

— Glenn Barkley

ARTIST BIO
Glenn Barkley is an artist, writer, curator and gardener based in Sydney and Berry NSW, Australia. His work operates in the space between these interests drawing upon ceramics deep history, to popular song, the garden and conversations about art and the internet.

He was previously senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2008–14) and curator of the University of Wollongong Art Collection (1996–2007).

He is co-founder of Kilnit Experimental Ceramics Studio Glebe and Co-Director of The Curators Department, an independent curatorial agency based in Sydney.

He was a finalist in the 2017 Shepparton Art Museum, Sidney Myer Ceramics Award.

His work is held in the collections of the Art Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery of Australia, Shepparton Art Museum and Artbank, Sydney.

THE PUBLIC BODY .02 Various Artists

Jul 28 - Oct 2, 2017

Featuring over forty practices from the 1970s to the present exploring feminist, queer and anti-racist subjectivities.

Jenny Watson is a leading Australian artist whose conceptual painting practice spans more than four decades. Curated by MCA Curator Anna Davis this survey exhibition features works from the late 1970s to the present, including examples of Watson’s early realist paintings and drawings, and a number of key series of works on fabric.

Inspired by both punk and feminism, Watson’s work uses distilled imagery and abbreviated text to create an intimate interior world. She has travelled widely since the 1970s and employs textiles collected on her travels as the surface for many of her paintings, which also often include collaged materials such as images from magazines, horse’s hair, ribbons, bows and sequins. Many of Watson’s works feature self-portraits and alter egos, a cast of longhaired women, horses, ballerinas, rock guitarists and cats, who enact life’s ongoing psychodramas.

Intertwining autobiography and fiction, her work incorporates a diary-like voice that is delivered with deadpan wit and seems to relay the everyday experiences, dreams and desires of a self-proclaimed suburban girl. The relationship between text and image is central to her work, which frequently includes a small panel of hand painted text that sits alongside a larger image, undercutting or changing its meaning.

Taking place from the 7-10 September 2017 [VIP Preview 6 September, Opening Night 7 September] throughout Carriageworks, the third edition celebrates five days of curated exhibitions and ambitious programming appealing to the serious collector, art lover and those curious about contemporary art.

Artistic Director of the 21st Biennale of Sydney Mami Kataoka has announced the title of the 2018 Biennale of Sydney is SUPERPOSITION: Art of Equilibrium and Engagement and shared the names of additional artists from Asia selected to present their works in the multi-venue event.

The 21st Biennale of Sydney title adopts the quantum mechanical term “superposition” which, in quantum theory, refers to the ability of electrons to occupy multiple states at once; to simultaneously take opposing paths and end up in different places. It is only with the application of measurement that matter is reduced to a single definition. The 21st edition will draw on this concept as a metaphor to link the notions of equilibrium and engagement and provide us with insights into the world today. We are surrounded by conflicting ideas across all levels of humanity: different cultures; readings of nature and the universe; political ideologies and systems of government; interpretations of human history, including the history of art and definitions of contemporary art.

Correspondingly, according to the theory of “Wuxing” in ancient Chinese natural philosophy, everything in this world is comprised of five main elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. Each element gives rise to the next—either through a process of symbiosis where one element encourages the formation of the others in a circulatory system, or, a situation of mutual conflict and antagonism, in which each element resists and suppresses the others. In reality, diverse elements come together in a state of repeated collision, collapse, and rebirth.

The participating artists in the 21st Biennale of Sydney, drawn from around the globe, have been chosen to offer a panoramic view of how opposing understandings and interpretations can come together in a state of equilibrium. It is Kataoka’s hope that their artworks will serve as a catalyst for thinking about these principles and concerns, and encourage each of us to consider our own position in society as a starting point.

Jo-Anne Birnie-Danzker, Director and CEO of the Biennale of Sydney, noted that “Mami Kataoka is a distinguished curator whose vision for the Biennale’s 21st edition is both timely and prescient. It encourages us to consider how all things of this world interact with each other. The 2018 Biennale of Sydney SUPERPOSITION: Art of Equilibrium and Engagementpromises to be an inspiring and important means for us to contemplate our place in the world.”

37 participating artists have now been announced for the 21st Biennale of Sydney with the complete list of participating artists to be announced in October this year. View the participating artists previously announced in April here.

The 21st Biennale of Sydney will be presented from March 16–June 11, 2018 (Preview: March 13–15).